Chess Admits a Prospective First Lady and a Serial Killer

Two people in the news this past week were revealed to be practitioners of the royal game. The New York Times reported that Michelle Obama and her brother played chess as children. Their mother prohibited them from watching more than an hour of television a day, and so they “were expected to fill their time with books, chess, sports….”

Michelle Obama is an illustrious addition to the gallery of chess players. Not so for the other addition, Steve Kazmierczak, who shot up Northern Illinois University. In high school, the Times revealed, Kazmierczak “was a B student with a baby face who was active in chess club….”

I just came across your blog for the first time and wanted to drop you a quick note.

I picked up a copy of “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis last week due to the fact that Mr. Ledger was going to be directing a movie based on this novel. I quickly read the entire book in just a few days and will be posting a review of it on my blog (www.rookhouse.com/blog) next week.

I am also three-fourths of the way through “The King’s Gambit” and wanted to tell you that it is one of the absolute BEST books that I have had the pleasure of reading so far.

Keep up the outstanding work and I hope to see a new book from you in the near future.